Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1887-11-18
HARD LINE
Shocking Life Lcd by Laborers on tho
Panama Canal.

past six months, was passenger on
the steamer Acapulco. which arrived
here Sept. 10. SAYS THE San Francisco
Examiner. He was braking on the
railway. and resigned his position
several weeks before sailing.
II left Baltimore last winter" he
said "to look after work had been
idle for some time and didn't care much
what took hold of. got AN offer TO
90 to Panama and brake on the rail-
way, and thinking of what j had been
told OF tho climate and being glad
enough to get an opportunity to 90 to
work. | accepted the offer.
Il arrived nj Panama in due season,
and was about to begin work two days
after leaving the steamer when | was
seized with terrible fever. The air is
thick and unhealthy, and / could
scarcely breathe. ! was convalescent
at the end Of week. but had some
thing Of the appearance Of II skeleton,
being only Il ghost of my former self.
"It's not necessary to relate my own
experience; what was IN ne was that Of
everyone who goes there to stay.
Panama comes nearer being llades
than any place was ever in. In the
rainy season the colored people die or
like herd of cattle when disease
spreads among them On one place
on the line daily funeral trains are run.
The cemetery is fourteen niles from
Aspinwall aud in the rainy season |
have seen five ira AS drive down there.
They have curious way OF burying
people there When the train reaches
the graveyard the corpse is thrown
into a hole two or three feet deep, and
the coffin is taken back to carry some
other poor unfortunate 30 his last rest
ing place.
Il went down one day to see the
canal laborers at work, aud ! never
will forget what | saw there. About
four hundred men were ut work in
this one place. Every nationality was
represented. There was the Scandi-
navian toiling in his mechanical way,
the Hibernian WAS joking VIII le he
shoyeled the Afr can negro, the Ja-
maica negro, Mexicans. English,
French Russians. Turks, all were
there, and the John Chinaman, with
his natty cue, worked in broken
hearted manner signing for the Flowe-
~ Kngdom which he left, hoping to
better his fortunes in foreign country.
'Whcrc the men were at work the
ground was soft. muddy YOU would
call it here When il is muddy there
the ground is like mush two feet deep.
1t was soft that day and fifty or more
fresh colored fellows had been brought
In. in the afternoon the heat and the
air had their effects upon them and one
by one they fell. | saw one man hit
on the head by the excavat NJ machine.
He was killed. The body was imme-
diately hoisted into the dumping tube,
sent through the machine. and that
was the last seen Of him. You can see
some shocking sights down there.
AT nightfall when the men are
through work for the day they begin
nights debauch on whisky Struggled
into camp. Whisky il not allowed
around, but it is impossible for the
superintendents 10 enforce the rules.
The men will drink. II they did not
believe they would go crazy. When
they become intoxicated nothing will
satisfy them but fight
"lf they would fight with their fists
II would not be so bad. but long sharp
knives are drawn and are red with
blood before shcathed again. Some
times the most horrible butcheries are
committed, and while one man is being
stabbed and hacked to pieces. the 9TH
ers stand off and jeer, and comment
on the beauty Of the contest.
'In a big city you can see human
nature in bad forms, but the worst
forms of vice practiced in New York
and London and Par.s are nowhere
when compared with what can be seen
every day on the isthmus.
After one of the contractors on the
railway shot one of the canal-workers
who attempted his life. they are very
careful how they treat the railway
hands. The latter GO well armed, and
on the first motion made by any Of the
blacks the pistol is drawn. If the con-
duciors were not careful and fearless
the ira Ms would be held up frequently.
The American government has not
the name that England has on the isth-
mus Of Panama.
"Onc reason is that the United States
! does not protect her citizens in for
eign country. If the conductor who
, shot the native last winter had been an
Englishman there would have been less
trouble
r Proof Positive.